Word games are universally enjoyed by people of various ages for both entertainment and education purposes. As a result, countless numbers of word games have been developed over the years and have resulted in different fundamental types of word games and many variations on those types of word games.
One type of word game is a letter arrangement game in which the objective of the game is to form a word on a playing surface from alphabet letters provided to a participant. The alphabet letters are provided to the participant, for example, by rolling one or more playing die having alphabet letters printed thereon or by selecting playing pieces from a plurality of tiles imprinted with alphabet letters. Typically, the letters are given different point values so that a “Word Score” may be determined and awarded to a participant based on the number of letters and the difficulty of the letters used to form the word. Word forming games of this variety are well known and are typically played with a plurality of players and include SCRABBLE™, BOGGLE™, and many variations of such games.
In addition, there are many word games that are played using an electronic device, such as a personal computer or mobile phone, and the concept of playing word games over a network such as the Internet is well-known. Additionally, many of these electronic and online word games are designed to allow for single player play.
Typically, in a single player electronic word game, the player is given a set of various alphabet letters and is tasked to form as many words as the player can within an allotted time period. The play is then scored on the number of words the player forms as well as the length of those words. These games are commonly described as taking scrambled letters and unscrambling them into words, and these games are also relatively well known. Examples of such games include BOOKWORM™ and TEXT TWIST™.
Another common type of electronic word game is a word search game in which the objective of the game is to search for already formed words within a scrambled grid of alphabet letters. These can also be seen in a non-electronic variety in word jumbles that can be found in daily newspapers of the past or present.
A vast majority of word games played on an electronic device, such as a computer or mobile phone, including those played on the Internet, are of the word forming or word searching variety. These word forming and word searching games utilize the established vocabulary of players. The word forming games also utilize the skill of the player in being able to take a scrambled set of alphabet letters and use at least some of them to form a word.
However, these types of games do not utilize the semantic meaning of the words. This limits the opportunity for a player to express creativity and engage more deeply in the language. Additionally, the educational value of such games is limited by the fact that the meaning and usage of the word is not a factor in the game. Using words in a semantic context could allow for such creativity, deeper language engagement and increased educational value.
While electronic word games having the objective of forming or searching for words are quite common, there are few electronic word games in which the semantic meaning of the word is a key component of the game.
Word games in which the semantic meaning of the word is important are typically party games that are played with a plurality of players together in one physical location, such as a group of friends playing in a room together. One type of game involves one or more players attempting to guess a given word or phrase as another player attempts to describe, draw or act out the word. Additionally, there may be constraints such as a list of words that may not be used while trying to get the other players to guess the particular word or phrase. Popular and well known forms of this type of game include TABOO™, CATCH PHRASE™, SCATTERGORIES™, PICTIONARY™ and charades. There are also other varieties of such semantic word party games such as guessing the dictionary definition of the word, as seen in BALDERDASH™, and word association games such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,648,139.
One particular form of a semantic word game is one in which a player is assigned one or more words and is required to use the assigned words in creating a sentence or text. The players may also be given a theme or scenario in which to direct the usage of the words in the creation of the sentence or text. Scoring is typically based in some way on the other players' reading of or reaction to the created sentence or text. Examples of this form of game include LITERATI CHALLENGE™ and SPINERGY™ (as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,287,755). A variation of this is where a player is given certain a certain word and must create a text in which the last word rhymes with the given word, according to a given theme, for example, as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,277 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,248,148.
This form is based on a technique that is sometimes referred to as “constrained writing” in which the participant writes a sentence or block of text but is given certain constraints, such as certain words that must be used.
This form of constrained writing, in which a participant must use one or more words in creating a sentence or text has particular educational value because the participant may be forced to use a word that he or she does not commonly use or even understand. The participant may then gain knowledge about the semantics of the word through such usage.
The commonality among all the semantic word games described above are that they are usually played in a group of 4 or more players that are together in the same room. This makes for an entertaining environment; however, it can be difficult logistically to gather a group together at the same time in the same location and have all players commit a length of time (usually at least an hour) in order to play the game.
There are very few types of games which a player can individually play from a remote location, such as on a personal computer or mobile phone, and the semantic meaning of the word is important in the game. Generally, any exceptions, such as crossword puzzles, while utilizing the semantic meaning of the word, are limited in terms of allowing creativity and expression by the player since there is a defined “correct” answer or solution. There exists at the current time, a web site at the url address of http://www.quadrivialquandary.com in which participants are challenged to create a single sentence that contains all four words from a daily selection of words. The words are generally very difficult, archaic or infrequently used words. However, a participant only posts the sentence that he creates in a forum and there is no game structure, scoring or judging process.
There exists a need for a multiplayer word game in which (i) the semantic meaning of the word is important, (ii) the game possesses a creative element in which there is no defined “correct” solution, and (iii) the players can participate without the need to play at the same time or be in the same location as other players.
Additionally, a need exists for such a word game wherein the level of difficulty or the category or theme of the words or phrases can be varied to accommodate a broad range of skill levels, interests, knowledge and vocabularies.
Furthermore, a need exists for such a word game to include a persistent account for each player in order to track statistics, game progress and other game related information for the player and is used in an overarching game structure in order to motivate players to compete and collaborate with friends and other players and also to unlock further aspects of the game.